Artificial Intelligence is reshaping politics and political science, just as it is transforming other social phenomena and their associated academic fields. As with the larger policy debates over artificial intelligence and its social impact, attitudes toward the newest version of this technology range from utopian to dystopian, with many also alleging the technology is overhyped, at least in the short term. With the pace of technological and political change nearly outpacing the capacity of (human) academics to analyze these trends, any endeavor to take stock of where things stand for AI and politics in the summer of 2026 is necessarily fraught. Although the trajectory remains uncertain, a volume like this provides a critical snapshot of the state of the field as it begins to grapple with the multifaceted questions of AI’s relationship to politics and research.